We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how performing formalized and improvised forms of praying changed the evoked BOLD response in a group of Danish Christians. Distinct from formalized praying and secular controls, improvised praying activated a strong response in the temporopolar region, the medial prefrontal cortex, the temporo-parietal junction and precuneus. ...

Praying over longer time spans can foster self-control. Less is known about the immediate, short-term consequences of praying. Here we investigated the possibility that praying may counteract self-control depletion. Participants suppressed or did not suppress thoughts about a white bear before engaging in a brief period of either personal prayer or free thought. Then, all participants completed...

Inspired by the abilities of the praying mantis to judge distance to its prey before the strike by use of motion-based visually mediated odometry, we create miniature model for depth estimation that are similar to the head movements of the Praying Mantis. We develop mathematical models of the praying mantis behavior and describe our implementations and experimental environment. We investigate s...

The praying mantis is an insect which relies on vision for capturing prey, avoiding being eaten and for spatial orientation. It is well known for its ability to use stereopsis for estimating the distance of objects. The neuronal substrate mediating visually driven behaviors, however, is not very well investigated. To provide a basis for future functional studies, we analyzed the anatomical orga...

background : improving quality of life (qol) has been an important consideration in patients with chronic diseases such as cancer particularly in last two decades. praying is a valuable nursing care to improve cancer patients’ qol. however, controversies still exist about the effect of different types of praying. this study was conducted to compare the impact of private and collective praying o...

Introduction. Knowing that someone was entangled with cancer is a surprising experience for that person. Being aware of having cancer not only makes the person loose his hopes and ambitions, but also influences his body and mental. Meanwhile, religion can play the proper role of complementary treatment, increasing life expectancy in these patients. Objective. The study was conducted with the ai...

Smart praying mats are essential to help old and forgetful Muslims perform their religious needs. Due to the binary representation of pressure sensors embedded into the mat for posture identification, existing smart praying systems either use large sensing arrays, thus becoming expensive and bulky, or utilize only a limited number of sensors, minimizing the cost of posture recognition accuracy....